MSB4181: The 'task' task returned false but did not log an error

This error occurs when a task returned false to signal that it didn't complete successfully, but didn't log an error. If you see this error, it means task failed, but it didn't report a specific error with more information.

To diagnose the problem, first enable a diagnostic log (use the -verbosity:diag command-line switch), and check the MSBuild log file with the full diagnostics output. For bigger output logs on large projects, consider using the binary log (-bl command-line switch) and the MSBuild Structured Log Viewer to view the output more easily.

You can also set the MSBuildDebugEngine environment variable to 1 to get all possible logs. See Building MSBuild for the .NET Framework - Logs.

If the task ran an executable, try running the executable separately with the same inputs and command line.

If you know the owner of the task, consider reporting this issue to the task owner and recommending that they modify the task to log more information.

If it's a custom task and you are the task owner, consider improving the error logging. For example, if an API you're calling could throw an exception, add an exception handler that logs the exception message.